Hybrid Toyota for Le Mans

Toyota is developing a petrol-hybrid LMP1 racing car to contest selected rounds of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship.

That includes the Le Mans 24 Hours, and Toyota’s titanic challenge will be to overcome the recent dominance of diesel-powered entrants in that event.

Toyota LMP1 2012 (Rendering) Front Side

The hybrid powertrain is to be produced by Toyota in Japan, but the design and manufacture of the car’s chassis and the running of the race team has been entrusted to Toyota Motorsport in Cologne, Germany. There’s no word yet on possible drivers.

Tadashi Yamashina, Toyota Motor Corporation Senior Managing Officer and Toyota Motorsport Chairman, said: “Toyota has entered Le Mans before, but by using our hybrid technology this time will be a completely new challenge. We want to write a new chapter in the history of the Le Mans 24 Hours, as in the FIA World Endurance Championship, through our use of hybrid technology.”

2012 will see the inaugural running of the FIA World Endurance Championship, and it comes as the result of a new partnership between the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO). The race calendar is expected to closely follow that of this year’s Intercontinental Le Mans Cup series.

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